Pope Francis Appoints Jesuit Father Robert Geisinger as Promoter of Justice

September 10, 2014 — Pope Francis has appointed U.S. Jesuit
Father Robert J. Geisinger as the Promoter of Justice at the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith. In this role, Fr. Geisinger will serve as
the
Vatican's chief prosecutor of sex abuse crimes.

The position also involves monitoring the
procedures that national bishops' conferences have in place for dealing with
abuse accusations and handling the dismissal from the priesthood of those
guilty of sexual abuse. Fr. Geisinger succeeds Father Robert W. Oliver, who has
been appointed Secretary to the Vatican Commission for the Safeguarding of
Minors.

A member of the Chicago-Detroit Province
Jesuits, Fr. Geisinger has been serving in Rome since 2001 as general
procurator for the Society of Jesus — the chief in-house canonical adviser to
Jesuit Superior General Father Adolfo Nicolás.

Born in Parma, Ohio, in 1958, Fr. Geisinger
received degrees in English literature, philosophy, canon law and a Master of Divinity
degree. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1981 and was ordained to the
priesthood in 1991.

Fr. Geisinger has also worked as associate
chancellor of the Chicago Archdiocese and as a presiding judge on the archdiocese's
metropolitan tribunal. [Catholic
News Service, Vatican
Radio]

August 21, 2018 – As we reckon with the Grand Jury report on sexual abuse by priests in Pennsylvania and the failures of bishops to protect the children entrusted to their care, our hearts and prayers—first and foremost—are with the victim-survivors.

January 17, 2019 — Let us pray in thanksgiving for the life of Fr. Eugene F. Merz, SJ, who was called to eternal life on January 16, 2019, around 5:30 a.m. Gene died at Zilber Hospice in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He was eighty-seven years old, a Jesuit for seventy years, and a priest for fifty-seven years.

January 16, 2019 — It was a homecoming fifty years in the making. In 2016, Fr. Casey Bukala, SJ, moved to the Colombiere Center near Detroit, where elder Jesuits live in community, receive the healthcare they need, and pray for the Church and the Society. It was not Fr. Bukala’s first time at Colombiere, however.

January 9, 2019 — Let us pray in thanksgiving for the life of Fr. John “Jack” R. Crocker, SJ, who died on Tuesday, January 8, 2019, at Colombiere Center in Clarkston, Michigan. He was 88 years old. May he rest in peace.